A Defender of Rare Birds Is Guilty of Smuggling Them

By The New York Times

Published: February 3, 1996

CHICAGO, Feb. 2—
A bird breeder who was an outspoken protector of endangered parrots has pleaded guilty to smuggling scores of rare wild birds into the United States, resulting in the deaths of at least a hundred.

The breeder, Tony Silva, 34, told Judge Elaine Bucklo of Federal District Court this week that he had smuggled more than 185 hyacinth macaws and other rare birds from South America from 1985 to 1994.

The prosecutors said Mr. Silva's smuggling operation netted an estimated $1.3 million. The hyacinth macaw, a large Brazilian bird with brilliant plumage, fetches as much as $10,000 when sold legally.

In an agreement with prosecutors, Mr. Silva pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate wildlife and customs laws and one count of tax evasion. A charge of smuggling against Mr. Silva's mother, Gila Daoud, was reduced as part of the agreement with Mr. Silva. Mrs. Daoud pleaded guilty to one count of assisting in tax evasion.

The counts against Mr. Silva carry a maximum penalty of eight years in prison and fines totaling $500,000. The count against Mrs. Daoud carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing was set for April 26.

Mr. Silva, who was indicted in mid-December 1994, along with his mother, had maintained his innocence for a year. But less than a week before his trial was to begin last month, he reached the plea agreement.

Court documents note that hyacinth macaws are among the world's most endangered birds, with fewer than 3,000 remaining in the wilds. But the market for these and other banned birds has boomed in recent years, according to the Federal Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Figures from Interpol, the international police organization, show that the animal-smuggling market worldwide is now a $20 billion-a-year racket. The United States accounts for about $3 billion of the illicit trade.

In the United States, the most sought-after endangered species are parrots and hyacinth macaws, say fish and wildlife agents. The agents said Mr. Silva had been the nation's foremost illegal dealer in rare birds for a decade.

But until his arrest, Mr. Silva had been, on the surface, a leading opponent of the smuggling trade. A one-time president of the American Parrot Association, he had published articles urging consumers not to buy parrots of suspicious origins. In 1991, in a speech at the Parrot Symposium International, he warned of the invidious consequences of rampant poaching on wild birds.

In 1989, he had served as curator of birds for a prestigious bird sanctuary on the Canary Islands off Spain. And all the while, prosecutors said, he had been smuggling rare birds and parrots into the United States.

In his plea agreement with the United States Attorney's Office in Chicago, Mr. Silva admitted to having conspired with confederates in South America to capture the birds and smuggle them to the United States.

Some of the birds were tranquilized and stuffed into small plastic tubes before being shoved into hollowed car-door panels. Others were smuggled on jetliners in false-bottomed suitcases beneath mounds of clothing.

John Doggett 3d, chief of the Fish and Wildlife Service's law-enforcement division, said at the time of Mr. Silva's indictment that his arrest "strips away a facade of respectability and a shield of legitimacy by some of those who profess to be protecting rare species."

Mr. Doggett led the investigation of Mr. Silva as part of the fish and wildlife agency's Operation Renegade, which the agency said had been the largest international effort ever undertaken to crack down on smuggling of rare birds and animals. Begun in 1989, the investigation involved undercover agents from New Zealand and South America, as well as the United States.

By 1994, the effort had resulted in 25 convictions of smugglers of rare birds and animals in Florida, California, New Zealand and Australia. Among the operation's prize informers was a convicted Florida drug dealer, Mario Tabrue, who is serving a life sentence for murder. He told fish and wildlife agents that as part of his dream of amassing Florida's largest menagerie of endangered species he had dealt with Mr. Silva.

Mr. Tabrue told the agents that Mr. Silva had supplied him with several shipments of illegal macaws and other birds, but most of them had arrived dead.

Yet Mr. Silva, in an interview for an outdoors magazine last November, said: "I love birds. I could never be involved in anything that killed them."

Animal-rights advocates have hailed Mr. Silva's conviction. "Tony Silva was a really revered figure in the bird world," said Peter Knight, co-director of the Investigative Network, a private organization in Washington that conducts undercover research on the international wildlife trade. "It helps sends the message that animal smuggling won't just be ignored or accepted by law enforcement.

"But this is just a drop in the bucket. Tony Silva was not the only bird smuggler out there, just the most sanctimonious. Whether the others will be stopped is questionable. Look at how much money was put into wildlife-smuggling prevention in the most recent Republican crime bill. I'll tell you: None."

Photo: A hyacinth macaw, which was among the rare birds smuggled in an estimated $1.3 million racket. (Gerand Lacz/Animals Animals)